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I had DirecTV installed about a month ago. I got an HR34 and 3 H25's, and I can't tell you how awesome it's been. Coming from cable, it's like a whole new world.

Now after looking some stuff up, I've got a question. The way the DirecTV installer did it, the coax from the satellite dish goes directly into the SWM 8 way splitter, and the SWM Power Inserter has a coax that goes from the 'Power to SWM' port into one of the open 'Out' ports on the SWM splitter, and nothing comes out of the 'Signal to IRD' port on the inserter, it's just got a cap on it.

Is that the way it's supposed to be? It works fine, but I'm just curious, as everything I've read shows something coming out of the 'Signal to IRD' port.

That's fine, you don't have to use that output on the PI. That is used if you install the PI in your setup somewhere else, like behind a TV or something. I did my own setup and install with SWM, and my PI is done the same way you describe.

I had DirecTV installed about a month ago. I got an HR34 and 3 H25's, and I can't tell you how awesome it's been. Coming from cable, it's like a whole new world.

Now after looking some stuff up, I've got a question. The way the DirecTV installer did it, the coax from the satellite dish goes directly into the SWM 8 way splitter, and the SWM Power Inserter has a coax that goes from the 'Power to SWM' port into one of the open 'Out' ports on the SWM splitter, and nothing comes out of the 'Signal to IRD' port on the inserter, it's just got a cap on it.

Is that the way it's supposed to be? It works fine, but I'm just curious, as everything I've read shows something coming out of the 'Signal to IRD' port.

Even though I'd seen the term many times around here, I finally looked it up. It took me 90 seconds of Googling to finally figure out that IRD apparently means "integrated receiver decoder," or in other words, a set top box.

My install is new like yours, and while my "Signal to IRD" port is connected to a coax run to one of my rooms, I never knew what IRD meant.

The "Signal to IRD" port on the power inserter is typically used if there is only one TV location. Then the coax from the dish goes to the PI, and then coax from the PI to the DirecTV box. In this case, there is no need for a splitter, and in fact you would not want to use one.

If there are two or more TV locations, then the normal procedure is to run the coax from the dish to the splitter, put the PI on the correct port of the splitter, and run from the other splitter ports to the multiple TV locations. In this case, you normally don't use the "Signal to IRD" port of the power inserter, but rather use one of the splitter ports.

The splitters come in a brown box. They have terminators on all the ports except two. Techs take the terminators off that aren't needed and they might leave one behind on the ground. If you have a crawlspace look inside. If there is a vent close to the splitter that comes out easily look there.

After you said that, I realized the installers had left a brown box with another small brown box inside that I had set aside. Sure enough, inside the smaller brown box were some metal terminators! Thank you!